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Published Sep 2014
256 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
The author of the best-selling and award-winning Netherland now gives us his eagerly awaited, stunningly different new novel: a tale of alienation and heartbreak in Dubai.
Distraught by a breakup with his long-term girlfriend, the hero of this novel leaves New York to take an unusual job in a strange desert metropolis. In a Dubai at the height of its self-invention as a futuristic Shangri-La, our protagonist struggles with his new position as the "family officer" of the capricious and very rich Batros family. And he struggles, even more helplessly, with the "doghouse," a seemingly inescapable condition of culpability in which he feels himself constantly trapped - even if he's just going to the bathroom, or reading e-mail, or scuba diving.
A comic and philosophically profound exploration of what has become of humankind's moral progress, The Dog is told with Joseph O'Neill's hallmark eloquence, empathy, and storytelling mastery. It is a brilliantly original, achingly funny fable for our globalized times.
"Starred Review. Clever, witty, and profoundly insightful, this is a beautifully crafted narrative about a man undone by a soulless society." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Shades of Kafka and Conrad permeate O'Neill's thoughtful modern fable of exile, a sad story that comments darkly on the human condition and refuses bravely to trade on the success of Netherland. - Kirkus
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: (CC) Larry D. Moore
Joseph O'Neill is the author of the novels The Dog, Netherland (which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award), The Breezes, and This Is the Life. He has also written a family history, Blood-Dark Track. He lives in New York City and teaches at Bard College.
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